by Luna

by Luna

Luna

Blog Intro

Hello, I'm Luna, and I'd like to welcome you to "Kisses from Kairo,"* my blog about living and working as an American belly dancer in Cairo.

Life in Cairo isn't easy for dancers, foreigners, women, or even Egyptians.It is, however, always exciting. That’s why after living here for seven years, I've decided to share my experiences with the world.From being contracted at the Semiramis Hotel to almost being deported, not a day has gone by without something odd or magical happening.I will therefore fill these pages with bits of my history in Cairo—my experiences, successes, mistakes, and observations.Admittedly, my time here has been rather unique, so I want to stress that while everything I write is true, my experiences do not necessarily reflect the lives of other dancers.

In addition to my life as a belly dancer, I will write about developments in costuming, performances, festivals, and, of course, the dance itself.I will also make frequent references to Egyptian culture. I should note that I have a love/hate relationship with Egypt. If I make any criticisms about the country, please keep in mind that I do so with the utmost love, respect, and most of all, honesty. Egypt has become my home, so I want to avoid romanticizing and apologizing for social maladies, as most foreigners tend to do. Nothing could be more misguided, patronizing, or insulting.

I hope you find this blog informative, insightful and entertaining, and that we can make this as interactive as possible. That means I'd love to hear from you. Send me your comments, questions, complaints, suggestions, pics, doctoral dissertations, money, etc., and I will get back to you. Promise. :)~

My Videos

Friday, January 11, 2013

Touch of Life

An "ambassador" greeting us at TOL. :)

It’s no secret that animal cruelty is endemic
in Egypt.Anyone who has been here can
tell you that.From dogs to donkeys, cats
to cows, it’s almost impossible not
to witness an act of cruelty or neglect on a daily basis.I know this isn’t unique to Egypt, and that cruelty
to animals exists all over the world.But the sheer magnitude and visibility of the problem here is overwhelming.In fact, it’s so commonplace that many
Egyptians don’t even consider it to be an issue.Like sexual harassment, it’s a fact of life,
not a “problem.”

Examples of brutality to animals include
but are not limited to: senselessly beating donkeys that are too “stupid” to
obey their masters; beating, torturing, poisoning and shooting stray dogs; spraying
toxic chemicals on dogs and cats causing them blindness; starving “work animals”
such as donkeys, horses, and cows; transporting hordes of cattle, sheep, and
donkeys in pickup trucks.I’m sure there
are other examples of abusive acts, but I’m incapable of imagining them.

Petting a baby donkey at the shelter.

There are many reasons why such things
happen.The biggest and simplest is that
there’s no one to stop people from injuring or killing animals, let alone throw
them in jail if they do.Though there
are laws criminalizing animal abuse, nobody knows about them, and they are
rarely, if ever, enforced.Abusers can
therefore get away with murder (quite literally), and they know that.Another reason is widespread ignorance,
especially when it comes to animals.A
large segment of the population has no formal education and is illiterate.And while some of these people are kind to
animals, the overall result of such ignorance is a culture that fears and hates
animals.

Additionally, there are people who kill
animals as a form of pest and population control.If there’s a noisy stray dog in the
neighborhood, or if cats keep entering a building, killing them is the easiest
way for people to get rid of the nuisance.Even the government has been known to engage in killing sprees from time
to time.And lastly, it is my belief
that the collective pent up frustrations of Egyptian society results in
individuals mistreating animals, not to mention sometimes women, children, and
even each other.

The cats (and dog) of TOL. <3

Though the situation here is bleak,
there are a handful of animal shelters sprinkled around the country.Most of them rescue injured animals.Some offer adoption services, as well as pet
boarding.Some specialize in cats and
dogs, some in horses and donkeys, and others in all animals.What they all have in common though, is that
they are overburdened and underfunded. I
know because when my $h!thead landlord threatened to kill the pregnant dog thatwas sleeping in our apartment building, I called every organization I
could find to ask if they could take her.All of them responded in the negative. Unless the dog was sick or injured, they
wouldn’t take her.In danger didn’t
count.That’s why I brought the dog and
her puppies up to my apartment.There
was no other choice.

As it happened, rescuing the five dogs
got me evicted.Which is fine because I
hate—I repeat—H.A.T.E. my landlord.He’s
proven to be a hypocrite and a liar, and loves making me feel like an infidel.Furthermore, he’s always making threats of
violence, directed both at the dogs and at myself.He must think his old age and his prayer scar
(zabeeba) excuse him.So it’s better I leave before I wage a holy
war on him.

With respect to the puppies, my eviction
is not a problem.I’ve found homes for
each one of them in the US with belly dancers, and they’ll be flying out this
week.The problem was with their mother,
Kelba.What would I do with her?I couldn’t hold on to her, because it was her
barking that got me evicted in the first place (along with the “fact” that dogs
prevent angels from entering the building).And, no other prospective landlord would allow me to keep a dog. On the other hand, I couldn’t just throw her
back in the street.I knew she would
die, most likely at the hands of my landlord, or maybe get hit by a car or
tortured by some stupid kid.It would
have been nice to get her adopted, but I knew that was a long shot, since she’s
not a puppy.Having hit a dead end, the
only thing left to do was call all the animal shelters again, tell them my sob
story, and beg them to take my dog.Even
if it meant I had to pay.Even if it
meant I had to spay.

Touch of Life Animal Shelter

Luckily for me and the dog, one shelter
agreed to take her.It’s called Touch of
Life (TOL), and it’s run by a French woman who’s been living in Egypt for 15
years.After explaining my situation, Anushka
graciously agreed to accept Kelba, but under one condition. I would have to get her neutered.The next day, I took Kelba to the vet and had
her ovaries removed (this was heartbreaking for me, as I’m not completely
comfortable with the idea of neutering pets, but it was either that or throw
her in the street).The day after, my
friends and I brought her to the shelter, which is located in the Shobramant
district of Giza.Just a little ways
past the pyramids, Shobramant is a rural area with lots of green pastures, and
is home to most of the animal shelters in Cairo.It’s clean and quiet, and a perfect place to
care for animals.

As we drove into the shelter, we were
greeted by some dogs, donkeys, a cat and a goat (Anushka calls them her
ambassadors :D).All of them were friendly,
and curious to meet Kelba, who was sitting in the backseat.The dogs jumped up on our windows, while the
loan black cat crawled into the car and started eating Kelba’s food! :)She didn’t mind though, as she was still
feeling the effects of the previous day’s anesthesia.Then Anushka came out to greet us and show us
around.

Magid overwhelmed by the animals!

Touch of Life Shelter consists of a
large white villa encircled by lots of grass.There is a large caged outdoor area for the dogs, another smaller one
for two or three vicious dogs, and plenty of grazing space for the animals that
have attained ambassador status.(Speaking
of which, I was dumbfounded by how nicely the different species interacted with
each other.Dogs played with donkeys ate
with goats, etc.It made me wonder why
humans can’t get along the way animals do.I came to the conclusion that it’s because animals don’t have ideologies
and “religions” to divide them.

The actual villa (which is furnished!)
is for the cats—all 200 of them—and two dogs.Needless to say, it doesn’t smell too pretty in there.But the cats are free to come and go as they
please, eating, playing, sleeping and eliminating whenever they want, wherever
they want.All of them are rescues.Many of them have health issues, or else have
been tortured.One cat had a broken
limb.Another’s tail had been chopped
off.And one poor little kitty had both
his eyes gouged out.I hope the person
who did that descends into the deepest layer of hell.If there’s no such thing as hell, I hope the
gods make one especially for him/her.

Anushka knows all their stories and all
their names.She even knows when they
came to her shelter, which is three years old now.Most impressively, she loves these creatures
as if they were her own.And the love is
reciprocated.I could tell by the way
the cats climbed all over her while she was standing. :)

I asked Anushka why she thinks animal
cruelty is so widespread in Egypt.Her
answer was “bad blood,” and she wasn’t referring to the animals.I’ll repeat no more of what she said, though I
don’t discount her theory.

A TOL volunteer feeding the cats.

Anushka isn’t running the whole show by herself,
however.While giving us a tour of the
facilities, she explained that she had a dedicated staff of volunteers helping
her out.They are mostly Sudanese. She says
she prefers it that way because Egyptian volunteers always wind up stealing from
the shelter.

The shelter and its staff work strictly
off of donations.The government doesn’t
fund them, and it takes about a year for any donations coming from outside the country
to reach the shelter (thanks to the whole issue with NGOs, foreign funding, and
“spies” last year).Basically, this
means that TOL, like other shelters, is underfunded.They lack the resources to care for the
animals as best as they could—something Anushka admitted to me.She said they can’t afford proper dog food, and
instead feed the dogs a mixture of chicken and meat bones, bread, and carrots. :/A lot of the cats were on the skinny side
too.

Kelba <3

Once I heard that, I started having
second thoughts about leaving Kelba there.She was already sickly skinny, her ribs were showing, and she needed to
eat.Though I had fed her generously
whiles she was with me, she had worms, so she never put on any weight.Plus, she had been nursing. The last thing I
wanted was for her to starve, so I thought to take her and do an about
face.My friends quickly knocked some
sense into me though, reminding me that the only other option was to throw her
in the street, and pointing out that the other dogs, although skinny, didn’t
look miserable.So I decided to leave
Kelba there, but promised myself I would take her back if I found an apartment
that allowed dogs, or if I moved back to the States.If neither of those happened, I would put
Kelba up for adoption in the States.(If
you would like to take her, please don’t hesitate to contact me.She’s sweet, good-natured, loves people and
other animals, is neutered and has all her vaccinations.And the vet said she’s only 2 years old. Please give this poor doggie a new chance at
life, if you can.She’ll be much better
off with you than in Egypt.)

A farmer seeking treatment for his cow.

It was time to leave the shelter and get
ready for work, but not before giving them a donation.My friends and I also decided to volunteer
there once a week, and do some fundraising.I’ll also be collecting all the leftover chicken and meat from the Nile
Memphis to feed the dogs and cats.

If you don’t live in Egypt but would
like to help, there’s a few things you could do.You could donate to the organization.You can raise awareness about TOL and about
animal cruelty in Egypt by sharing TOL’s Facebook page as well as this blog
post.You could organize dance haflas and send the proceeds to TOL or
to any of the other animal shelters for that matter (see links to organizations
below). You could also adopt a dog or a
cat if it’s within your means (contact me for more info about that).

I know a lot of people would question
importing an animal as opposed to adopting one from a local American
shelter.But I would answer that even
the animals in American shelters are much better off than their counterparts in
Egypt.Adopting a cat or dog from Egypt
would be doing a huge act of kindness, and in some cases, saving the animal’s
life.

Thank you all for reading and
considering helping out.The more we get
the word out, the better it is for the animals.

About Me

Luna is an American belly dancer contracted at the Nile Memphis in Cairo. Her authentic Egyptian style, musical interpretation, and stage presence make her one of the most requested dancers in Egypt. For performance and class schedules, or to book Luna for a workshop, contact Luna at lunaofcairo@gmail.com.